Where beer geeks get offended. Welcome to the world of beer as viewed by the founder of the New Albanian Brewing Company in New Albany, Indiana, who reminds you that beer is far too important to be left to Rate Advocate.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

New "Baylor on Beer" at LouisvilleBeer.com

I reworked an older column from 2010 into this "Baylor on Beer" submission to LouisvilleBeer.com, proving that it's always okay to sample oneself, especially when the schedule is too busy to be original. Seeing as this is NABC's 25th anniversary week, the following helps to explain a few motivations of my own.

I’m often asked to provide advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, which can be a comical experience – for me, if not them. After all, as with most other entrepreneurs, most of what I’ve managed to do while “in business” is to have created a job description that applies only to me, and to perform these tailor-made duties quite well, as there exists little basis for comparison. In short, after 30 years in beer, I’m absolutely unemployable.

Other tidbits of advice include being prepared to work quite a lot for remuneration that’s seldom adequate, have as much fun as possible in lieu of pay, and most importantly, know yourself, because if you don’t know yourself, there’s little chance of understanding anyone else (this also helps in case of marriage).

It strikes me that in this context, what I wrote in 2010 as slightly revised below helps to explain, at least in part, what has compelled me to do what I’ve been doing since my first day of package liquor store employment in 1982, and subsequently running through more than two decades at NABC. It’s all about rage, perhaps finally tamed at this late date, but never entirely quelled.